Tag: cleaning

Day 19

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Writing again

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Before and after going to the dog field with Lydia this morning, I did some work in the kitchen, finishing the decorating and cleaning, then putting things back but reducing clutter at the same time.  It does look and feel so much better.

Leaving Lydia to look after the house – Trev was still away but came back this afternoon – I headed over to the Buddhist Centre to do some volunteering for a few hours.

The work was outside. To begin with it felt a bit cold, but I had gloves, a hat, coat and boots. It wasn’t long before I took off the hat, coat and gloves, as the physicality of the work – sweeping – warmed me up. A few people – residents at the Centre – passed me as I was working and all made appreciative comments.  The young lady who was supervising me made sure that I was happy doing the work and insisted that I had a cup of tea before I left, which I did.

The satnav on the way home directed me on a different route to the one I normally take and it proved to be a calm and quiet drive, through villages lit up by Christmas lights – lovely.

Arriving home, I was glad I’d made the enchiladas the day before as all I had to do was turn the oven on before giving Lydia her tea and then having a bit of a rest.  Trev had returned home and it was good to watch a bit of telly.  It’s been a fairly full day, and a good one.

Day 18

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Writing again

Continuing to work on the kitchen, I made good progress with more cleaning and a bit of painting before leaving the last coat of paint to dry and heading out to do some shopping.

Lydia has kept me company all day and she enjoyed an extra lamb rib as well as a raw chicken wing with her tea.

I had some savoury rice, and vegetarian sausages that were in the freezer. Then I made some chilli enchiladas for Trev and me to have for our tea tomorrow night. I bought avocados and limes to make fresh guacamole, and crème fresh as a lighter alternative to sour cream. There’s plenty of chilli left over so we can have that on Saturday night, or it will freeze for later.

Day 9

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Writing again

I’ve been reading more of the book, ‘How to Transform Your Life’ by the Venerable Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, Rinpoche.

Just being able to concentrate on reading again feels like a bit of a transformation, although that is not the type of transformation that the book is about. Or maybe it is, in that meditation and doing my best to put the teachings into practice have helped to start bringing my concentration levels back.

Lydia has done a lot of barking today, after a quiet walk this morning.  She’s now had her tea and is snuggled up to her blanket/quilt.  She’s looking at me and blinking her eyes and making a few gurgly noises with her throat, so I think she’s fairly relaxed.

There’s meatloaf left over from yesterday that Trev made so it’s an easy tea for us, with some boiled potatoes, steamed broccoli and gravy.

A bit more telly tonight, keeping things steady this week as I’ll be doing some intensive deep cleaning next week.  Trev’s away for a few days so I’ll set to with my steam cleaner. We’re getting ready to put the house on the market in the New Year, and it’s just about doing what needs to be done for that, before Christmas.

Day 21

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Writing into Life, more

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Lydia and I had one of our weekend walks this morning, on a quiet track.  It was cold, so I wore a hat. I’d inadvertently shrunk my knitted winter hat in a too-hot wash a couple of weeks back, but I found another in the cupboard to keep my head warm.  My cold is on its way out but I still need to keep myself ‘well wrapped up’, as our Mum used to say.

Lydia kept stopping and looking out over the fields at something I couldn’t see, or maybe it wasn’t something she saw either but sensed.  Anyway, we had an easy walk which I needed, then back to a warm house – breakfast for both of us and another cup of tea for me.

Strong tea and freshly brewed coffee are daily pleasures for me, but I’m cutting out coffee at the moment, and only drinking tea in the morning. This is to help me establish a better sleep pattern again.

I did a bit of kitchen tidying and cleaning, loading and unloading the dishwasher and mopping the floor, before going back to bed for more rest.  I have been very sensible in looking after myself while I’ve had this virus working its way through my body, and I do think that is a strategy that is paying off. It can be a bit frustrating, resting, but I know I need to do it at the moment.

Later it was Trev’s turn to take ‘stuff’ to the tip, which is actually a recycling centre, and very well organised for different types of waste, including a ‘waste to energy recovery’ skip for anything that doesn’t fit the recycling categories, such as wood, metal and so on.

I think we’re only a few tip trips short of a good clear-out now.  I have a charity shop run planned tomorrow, and then I’ll buy a pot of paint, to start doing some internal work that needs doing. 

Day 1

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Writing into Life, more

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Starting this latest 28-day cycle of writing into life on a Mental Health Monday, I have so far meditated and had a walk with Lydia.

I collected her from the boarding kennels this morning where she has been staying for a couple of nights. I had a night out in town with two friends on Saturday and a duvet day on Sunday.

Cocktails and a Thai curry in good company made a welcome change and Lydia had a change of environment as well. We all need it sometimes.

I’m booked into yoga this afternoon, followed by a Qigong class.

I’m struggling with low mood and low energy levels. For now, I don’t think there is anything I can do other than what I am doing.  There are no ‘quick fixes’ so I approach the situation as positively as possible, keeping a focus on health and wellbeing and remembering to be glad that I am so fortunate to have my health and a reasonable level of fitness; not something to be taken for granted.

The day is mild, with blue sky and sunshine, albeit damp from the weekend’s rain. 

Lydia has had her second breakfast – they’d fed her before I picked her up from the kennels this morning but she still demanded – and got – her breakfast ball with her usual supply. We all need a bit of a ‘bonus ball’ sometimes. She’s now outside enjoying being back in her domain.

Over the last couple of weeks, while I’ve had a writing ‘holiday’, I’ve been bringing my focus closer to my own domain: my home; our home. Home isn’t something to be taken for granted either. I’ve always been fortunate to have one, one way or another.

Over the next few months – through the winter – I’m going to concentrate on giving care and attention to the edges and corners in our home – the bits that often get missed with a general sweep and ‘hoover’ round. I’ve never been the best at spring cleaning so I’m going to do it over the winter instead.  Then, when spring comes, I’ll be free to do other things instead.  That’s my plan; that’s what I’ll do. It may not be the most exciting plan on the planet, but it’s mine.

Paperback versions of my two latest books are now available on Amazon:

Rules, Rhymes, Recovery, Recipe, Random: writing into life

https://amzn.eu/d/eYRAkLi

A Woman, a Dog & a Blog: glad about life

https://amzn.eu/d/iLQfyIi

Day 25 – weekends

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Writing into Life

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Lydia had a good run around the dog field this morning, chasing trucks and tractors that passed by on the other side of the fence. 

It could be argued that I shouldn’t encourage her to use her ‘hunt’ capacity as it goes against the training that I do with her on other days, but on balance I’ve decided that the benefits of cardiovascular exercise she gets outweigh the drawbacks.  She just needs to run free sometimes and do what she wants to do, within the safe confines of the dog field.

While she’s doing her thing I do mine, with exercises for my knees and repeats of the Qigong[1] ‘healing form’.

‘Back at the ranch’ I rest for a while, then locate my trusty carpet cleaner to go over the central area of the lounge. I did the whole room a while back but it just needs a freshen up in the middle which gets most of the traffic from paws and feet.  I also give the stair carpet a clean and that’s my ‘domestic duties’ done for the day.  

Back to binge-watching some more episodes of MAFSAU, not feeling under any pressure to do much else. Resting up and prioritising the way I have been is beginning to influence my burnt-out brain in positive ways, so I’m continuing with slow and steady.

It’ll be a takeaway pizza and a bottle of red wine for me tonight.  Red wine was always a favourite of mine on a Friday night when I was working and it still is.  Just because you’re retired doesn’t mean you can’t celebrate the end of the ‘working week’.  On most days during the week I do something constructive one way or another, and I’m looking forward to a relaxing weekend.

I have absolutely nothing planned and don’t feel I need to have either.

[1] Chinese exercise for health and wellbeing

Day 8 – caring

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Writing into Life

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I wake early, around 6am, relieved to know that there is no pressure for me to get up and out of bed for a few hours yet.

I set myself a target of 9.30 but rise before then, go downstairs and make a cup of tea.  The important thing comes first though – giving Lydia a tummy and chest rub.  Then I open the back door and do a few repeats of ‘Healing Form’ as Lydia welcomes the day in her own way.  Sue, the Qigong teacher, reminded us of some of the details of the Healing Form movement in the class last night so I was able to reintroduce these to my practice.

It’s a quiet walk for Lydia and me this morning, with no passing cars, joggers, cyclists or dogs; just a tractor going to and fro’ across a field in the distance. 

Back home and she has her breakfast from her breakfast ball as usual; she is an expert now at nudging it around with her nose so that the dried food pellets fall out; it’s a lot better for her than passively eating from a bowl.

I have a restful morning, doing nothing much more than loading and setting off the dishwasher, and putting away some clean laundry.  I’m sure if I looked around the house I could – and would – find dust and cobwebs in various corners, but on the whole I’m up to date with what needs doing inside.

As it’s Tuesday I visit my friend who used to live in the village but now lives in a care home, a few miles away.  Her personal carer, J is there too, and we have a lovely chat together outside in the sunshine while J does M’s nails, commenting on the wonderful weather we’ve had this summer and how we wish we could have weather like this every summer.

After J leaves, I read M a short story from a magazine I’ve brought with me. She lies on the bed and snoozes as I read.  At 85, it’s good to see her relaxed and looking so much brighter than she did a few weeks ago.  It’s amazing what a change of environment can do.

Arriving home, I have a supply of dental sticks that I ordered for Lydia, and proof copies of my latest books in paperback form waiting for me.  I give Lydia a dental stick for a treat straight away and flick through the proofs.  I’ll need to look at them in more detail before I approve them for publication, but am pleased on first sight.

Self-management rule no. 20 is a good one: enjoy the process. I have found in my life that it is enormously difficult to do this, but am working on it, and – I believe – getting better at it by the day, bit by bit, step by step.

Day 25

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Continuing the story of Lydia and Me

I decided that my tired mind would benefit from a bit of focused activity so I turned to cleaning up my creative corner in the lounge.

After a walk with Lydia and a short meditation, I set to.

Bowls of dry clay are now outside, soaking up water, until they are ready to be reconstituted into that malleable substance that is so versatile.

I’m moving in a different direction now in my work with clay.  I have no idea what that direction is, only that it is different.

It feels good, to have tidied and sorted, thrown out, re-organised.

With my ‘plan’ for pottery now in place, I turn to poetry.

There is a meeting of the poetry group coming up, and our theme this month is ‘A painting’. The remit is to interpret this as broadly as we want to (which of course is our prerogative anyway, as creators/writers).

My poem is this:

A painting

A painting
can be anything
you want it
to be

A flower
A wall
A tree

Brush goes into pot
Paint loads
Hand holds
And then it flows

Wherever
and however
you want it
to go

The mark is made
and then it’s gone
in the blink
of an eon

Is the painting
in the pot?
Or on the wall?

Where does the call
to paint
come from?

Is the painting
in the mark
or the mark
on the canvas
or the wall
or the wood?

It can be good
to paint
or not

It just depends
on what is in
the paint
and what is in
the pot

© Maggie Baker – Glad the Poet – 2025

I do now feel a sense of mental energy coming through; the tiredness was temporary; doing something constructive helped.